National Aeronautics and Space Administration Moons of the Solar System

www.nasa.gov

Triton
Dione
Tethys

Earth
Mimas

Iapetus

Rhea

Enceladus
Titan
Earth’s Moon

Titania

Europa

Miranda

Oberon

Io
Charon
Callisto

Ganymede
National Aeronautics and Space Administration Moons of the Solar System
www.nasa.gov

Moons come in many shapes, sizes, and types. They are gener Uranus has 27 known moons. The inner moons appear to be SIGNIFICANT DATES
ally solid bodies, and few have atmospheres. Most of the moons about half water ice and half rock. Miranda is the most unusual; 1610 — Galileo Galilei and Simon Marius independently discover
probably formed from the discs of gas and dust circulating its chopped-up appearance shows the scars of impacts of large four moons orbiting Jupiter. Galileo is credited and the moons are
around planets in the early solar system. As of November 2005, rocky bodies. Neptune’s moon Triton is as big as Pluto, and or called “Galilean.”
astronomers have found at least 153 moons orbiting planets in bits backwards compared with Neptune’s direction of rotation. 1877 — Asaph Hall discovers Mars’ moons Phobos and Deimos.
our solar system. The moon champion, Jupiter, has a total of Neptune has 13 known moons. 1969 — Astronaut Neil Armstrong is the first of 12 humans to
62 known moons, including the largest moon in the solar sys walk on the surface of the Moon.
tem, Ganymede. Many of Jupiter’s smallest outer moons have Pluto’s single moon, Charon, is about half the size of Pluto. Some
astronomers think of them as forming a binary, or double, planet 1980 — Voyager 1 instruments detect signs of surface features
highly elliptical orbits and orbit “backwards” (opposite to the beneath the hazy atmosphere of Saturn’s largest moon, Titan.
spin of the planet). Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune also have some system. Like Earth’s Moon, Charon may have formed from debris
resulting from an early collision of an impactor with Pluto. In 2000–2005 — Since the beginning of the year 2000, 84 of the
“irregular” moons, which orbit far from their respective planets. 153 known moons of the solar system have been discovered.
October 2005, scientists using the Hubble Space Telescope to
Usually the term “moon” brings to mind a spherical object, like study this distant planet announced that Pluto may have two Jupiter’s known moons have increased from 18 to 62. Saturn’s
Earth’s Moon. The two moons of Mars, Phobos and Deimos, are additional moons. The candidate moons are about two to three known moons have jumped from 18 to 47. Uranus’ moon count
somewhat different. While both have nearly circular orbits and times as far from Pluto as Charon and roughly 5,000 times has gone from 21 to 27, and Neptune’s known moons have in
travel close to the plane of the planet’s equator, they are lumpy fainter than Pluto. creased in number from 8 to 13.
and dark. Phobos is slowly drawing closer to Mars, and could ABOUT THE IMAGES
crash into Mars in 40 or 50 million years, or the planet’s gravity FAST FACTS
might break Phobos apart, creating a thin ring around Mars. Mean Radius Mean Radius 1 Selected solar
Planet Moon (km) (mi) system moons,
Of the terrestrial (rocky) planets of the inner solar system, nei Earth Moon 1,737.4 1,079.6 displaying a variety
ther Mercury nor Venus has any moons at all, Earth has one, and Mars Phobos 11.1 6.9 of surface features,
Mars has its two small moons. In the outer solar system, the gas Mars Deimos 6.2 3.9 are shown at correct
giants (Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune) have many moons. relative sizes to each
Jupiter Io 1,821.6 1,131.9
As these planets grew in the early solar system, they were able to Jupiter Europa 1,560.8 969.8 other and to planet
capture objects with their large gravitational fields. Jupiter Callisto 2,410 1,498 Earth.
Jupiter Ganymede 2,631 1,635
Earth’s Moon is another story. The Moon probably formed when 2 Miranda, a moon of Uranus, has many rugged features.
a large body about the size of Mars collided with Earth, ejecting Saturn Mimas 198.6 123.4
Saturn Enceladus 249.4 154.9 3 This false-color image of Neptune’s moon Triton shows what
a lot of material from our planet into orbit. Debris from the early
Saturn Tethys 529.9 329.3 appear to be volcanic deposits.
Earth and the impacting body accumulated to form the Moon Saturn Dione 560 348
approximately 4.5 billion years ago (the age of the oldest col 4 This Voyager 1 close-up of Saturn’s moon Rhea shows the
Saturn Rhea 764 475
lected lunar rocks). Twelve American astronauts visited the Moon Saturn Titan 2,575 1,600 moon’s ancient, cratered surface.
during the Apollo lunar landings in 1969 to 1972. Saturn Iapetus 718 446 5 A portion of a Cassini radar image of Saturn’s largest moon,

Saturn has more than 40 known moons. The chunks of ice Uranus Miranda 235.8 146.5 Titan, showing the complexity of the surface.
Uranus Ariel 578.9 359.7
and rock in Saturn’s rings (and the particles in the rings of the 6 Cassini imaged Saturn’s outer moon Phoebe when the space
Uranus Umbriel 584.7 363.3
other outer planets) are not considered moons, yet embedded in Uranus Titania 788.9 490.2 craft was inbound for orbit insertion in June 2004.
Saturn’s rings are distinct moons. Small “shepherd” moons help Uranus Oberon 761.4 473.1
keep the rings in line. Saturn’s moon Titan, the second largest in FOR MORE INFORMATION
Neptune Triton 1,353.4 841
the solar system, is the only moon with a thick atmosphere. Neptune Nereid 170 106 solarsystem.nasa.gov/index.cfm
Pluto Charon 600 373
LG-2005-12-572-HQ — JPL 400-1253K 12/05